Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cooling unit having a base group, a rear wall group, and an upper group, which delimit a cooling chamber from below, the back, and above and are provided at least in part with components of a cooling device and which have a multilayered structure with a flow conduit system therein embodied. In the base group, the rear wall group, and the upper group, intermediate spaces are formed between respective layers as parts of the flow conduit system and in order to allow the air to circulate, the lower intermediate space formed in the base group, on the rear side thereof, is fluidically connected to a lower section of the vertical intermediate space formed in the rear wall group while the upper intermediate space formed in the upper group, on the rear side thereof, is fluidically connected to an upper section of the vertical intermediate space formed in the rear wall group, and an evaporator or another heat exchanger of the cooling device is situated or positioned in the vertical intermediate chamber for generating cooling air.
Discussion of Related Art
A cooling unit with such a flow conduit system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Reference JP H06-265 255 A. In this known cooling unit, an air flow produced by fans is conveyed in a flow circuit through a base group, a rear wall group, and an upper group as well as through an open front side of the cooling unit. An evaporator for producing the necessary cooling air is situated in the lower section of the rear wall group adjacent to the base group. In the flow direction upstream of the evaporator, a fan is positioned in a voluminous space of the base group. A part of the air flowing out through the evaporator in an upward direction is conveyed downward between its front side and the rear side of a wall section of the rear wall group and through the rear wall section into the interior of the unit that is to be cooled. A stratified air flow routing is produced in the rear wall group, the upper group, and partially also the base group. In such cooling units, achieving the most energy-efficient cooling possible poses problems. It is also necessary to take into account the most manageable design for installation and for the user.
A cooling unit disclosed in European Patent Reference EP 0 696 893 B1 is also shown with a flow conduit system extending through a base group, a rear wall group, and an upper group and across an open front region of the cooling unit that is embodied in a similar way to the cooling unit described above. Here, too, an evaporator is situated in the transition region between the base group and the rear wall group and a fan is positioned in the base group. The base group is likewise embodied as relatively voluminous.
Other cooling units with similar flow conduit systems are disclosed in Japanese Patent Reference JP 2001-221 561 A, Canadian Patent Reference CA 821 795 A, Chinese Patent Reference CN 1 935 060 A, Japanese Patent Reference JP S52-28 053 A, Japanese Patent Reference JP S62-105 077 A, Japanese Patent Reference JP S61-3 378 U, Taiwanese Patent Reference TW 382 439 U, Japanese Patent Reference JP S 59-76 973 U, Japanese Patent Reference JP S51-125 372 U, Japanese Patent Reference JP S58-20 885 U, Canadian Patent Reference CA 676 020 A, Japanese Patent Reference JP S48-45 596 U, Japanese Patent Reference JP H01-158 092 U, and Japanese Patent Reference JP H04-110 365 U.
German Patent Reference DE 20 2010 008 333 U1 discloses a cooling unit with a single-layer air flow in which a heat exchanger with an especially flat embodiment is situated above a blower system on an active wall in the lower region of the rear wall group. In the region of the base group, the air flow travels over the floor or over an insulation lying on the floor. In the rear wall, in the flow conduit, positioning rails are installed across the latter's layer thickness, in which shelf supports are hung.
Another cooling unit with a flow conduit system in a rear vertical region and in a lower and upper horizontal region is disclosed in PCT Patent Reference WO 2012/025 240 A2. In this known cooling unit, on the front side, warmed air that is guided into a lower horizontal sub-chamber is conveyed into a rear, vertical sub-chamber and in the latter, is conveyed through an evaporator in order to cool it. Part of the cool air exiting the top side of the evaporator is conveyed downward along the rear wall of the cooling chamber and via openings there, travels into the cooling chamber from the rear in order to cool the latter. Another partial flow of the air cooled by the evaporator travels into the upper sub-chamber and in the latter's front section, is conveyed downward through an opening in order to form a cooling air curtain and thus achieve a thermal insulation of the cooling chamber relative to the surrounding air. These measures make a significant contribution to improving the cooling conditions in the cooling unit. It is nevertheless difficult to achieve an optimum cooling function in a cooling unit.